• Asia

Asia Launches Its First Parliamentary Transparency Index Inspired by Latin America

The Asian Alliance for Parliamentary Openness (AAPO) is advancing the creation of the Asian Parliamentary Transparency Index (APTI), the first regional indicator to measure the level of openness and accountability of parliaments across ten Asian countries. The project is led by parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) with international academic support, and the results are expected to be published in 2026.

Last week, a workshop in Tokyo brought together experts and activists to continue refining the indicators and strengthening the methodology that will serve as the foundation for the study. Inspired by the Latin American Legislative Transparency Index (ILTL) —which evaluated 14 parliaments in the region in 2023—, the APTI will apply a similar methodology adapted to the Asian context and measure four key dimensions: institutional transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and legal framework.

This initiative aims to establish a comparative framework that can serve as a basis for promoting parliamentary reforms and strengthening citizen engagement in the region’s parliaments.

The participation of Directorio Legislativo, made possible thanks to the support of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, is crucial to this process, as the APTI draws inspiration from the ILTL, coordinated by the organization within the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency (RLTL). In this way, DL helps transfer over a decade of regional experience to a new continent, building bridges between Latin America and Asia in parliamentary openness.

The development of the APTI and the PMO network, in addition to the recent workshop in Tokyo, included sessions in Melbourne (November 2023) and Taipei (November 2024), as well as dozens of virtual meetings with experts and civil society. The goal is to finalize the methodology in the coming months so that in 2026 the organizations can measure the index in their respective countries.

Among the organizations driving and supporting the project are Citizen Congress Watch (Taiwan), WeVis (Thailand), Indonesian Parliamentary Center – IPC (Indonesia), Directorio Legislativo (Latin America), and the University of Melbourne (Australia), along with others from Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka.